Reports » Rainwater Harvesting in Nepal: In search of financially sustainable ways to up-scale the provision of RWH Systems in Nepal

Rainwater Harvesting in Nepal: In search of financially sustainable ways to up-scale the provision of RWH Systems in Nepal

Summary

The report aimed to examine the financing possibilities to realize the up-scaling of rainwater harvesting systems to a larger part of the Nepalese rural population. The explored financing possibilities are subsidies by NGOs and government bodies, and self-contribution of the households via cash contribution, in-kind contribution and microfinance. First, the report gives an analysis on the benefits and costs of RWH-systems. The most important benefits are harvested water and saved time. The other benefits are categorized in social, economic and health benefits. The most important costs are the construction costs, which are relatively high and challenging for the households to pay independently. Two different rainwater harvesting systems are compared and the comparison shows that the depending on the system, different interests are served. In one case the social interests are predominantly served, while with the other system, the economic interests are predominantly served.

The report also glanced at the financing possibilities and inquired relevant stakeholder groups how they regard these options in terms of chances, challenges and future perspective. The interviewed stakeholder groups are mainly households, NGOs, government bodies, construction partners and financial institutions. All stakeholder groups regard the up-scaling of RWH positively and see benefits. Up-scaling via subsidies and self-contribution seems required by all groups, at least in the short-term. However, microfinance provides new opportunities and certain risks and challenges at the same time. The required income generating activities via rainwater harvesting systems to repay microfinance loan are not clear-cut at the moment. It should be mentioned that the projects with microfinance loans are in initial phases. Finally, the report analyses the variables, which turned out crucial during the fieldwork to realize sustainable financed rainwater harvesting projects: the possibility to contribute in cash and in-kind, the donor subsidy, access of the microfinance institute and the distance to the market. The study also recommended a simple model based on the interviews. The model shows the possible different ranges with the financing possibilities.